Review:Keith Christmas: Live At The Village Pump Trowbridge. 2012

 When I first moved to Wiltshire in the late 70's I used to go to the Village Pump Folk Club nearly every week. It is an amazing venue and must be the most unique folk club in Great Britain. It is in a converted stone barn at the back of the Lamb pub in Trowbridge. Tiny but with its gallery upstairs it has an almost Shakespearean intimacy. Its whitewashed walls are decorated with musical instruments and pictures of past guests. It first opened in 1974 with the very first guest  Keith Christmas and it is a miracle that it is still there 38 years later. The dedicated people who have kept it going deserve awards for their hard work. I have forgotten most of the people I saw there, but one person I particularly remember was Dave Cousins of the Strawbs because I was quite a big Strawbs fan back in the day. I also remember the early days of the Village Pump Folk Festival when it was held in a marquee at the back of The Lamb.

We paid our admission of £8.00 which is a pittance compared to the cost of some concerts we have been to and we sat at a table at the back. The evening started with an open mike session, and then Keith came on and he did two 45 minute sets. I thought he was superb. The guitar playing is par excellence. My friend Pete plays the guitar himself and he was in awe of the skill displayed. Keith has a unique singing voice as well. The years have certainly not diminished his vocal power. I particularly enjoyed the love songs which were very moving. If I had to choose one song I think Travelling Down was really great. 

    Keith was recording the gig so I hoped a CD might become available as I really wanted to hear it again and get more acquainted with the songs. I was really pleased a few weeks later when the CD plopped through my letterbox. The CD is beautifully designed and the cover has a great photo of Keith. As soon as I put it in the player the memory of that great evening came flooding back. After listening a few times I love nearly every track, from the bottle neck guitar blues to the gentle ballads. What a fine body of work Keith has to be proud of. Particular favourites are Good For Me, Evensong, Duty Days, The Fawn and Forest And The Shore but it isn't really fair to pick out some songs as better than others because the whole album is great. There are also three bonus studio tracks which are equally good. One thing that the album shows is that Keith isn't relying just on his back catalogue he is also still expressing himself by writing new interesting songs. Keith is appearing at the Village Pump Festival next week at a beautiful site which is right here in Westbury below the famous White Horse and within walking distance so I am looking forward to seeing him again soon.

Review, Patti Smith,The Forum, Bath 28/6/2012

It was in the hot summer of 1976 that I first heard the music of Patti Smith. I had moved back to Peterborough briefly and got a job in a fish factory called Christian Salvesens. It was horrible. Dave and Fred had a flat in Broadway and I used to go round there quite a lot. On Saturdays we used to go to Andy's Records in Bridge Street or another record shop in the Hereward Arcade that I can't remember the name of now. One day Fred bought a real classic. It was Horses by Patti Smith and I immediately thought it was one of the best albums I had ever heard. I remember at the time Fred saying that along with Keith Richards and one or two others Patti Smith was one of the few people who understood what Rock And Roll was all about. I must say I agreed with him.I liked it so much that i got my own copy.
The opening track is Patti's version of Van Morrison's Gloria with the famous line added by Patti, 'Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine'. I think that some of my friends who know me as a Van Morrison fan might think it strange that I like the high priestess of punk Patti Smith, but I can see connections between the two apart from both being known for Gloria. If Patti is the high priestess of punk then you could argue that Van is the grandfather of punk. Early Van songs like Gloria and Mystic Eyes were punk or garage classics 12 years ahead of their time. There is a lot more to them than that though. Firstly they were both influenced by the great French poet Arthur Rimbaud. In her song Piss Factory which was on Patti's first single she relates how while working on the production line in a factory she found her salvation when she read Rimbaud's 'Illuminations' a book which she had shoplifted. It was that very same book that Van was reading at the time of writing 'Tore Down A La Rimbaud ' one of his greatest songs. Also, Van & Patti were both influenced by William Blake. Also they both experienced visions during their childhoods which I have written about previously.

The next three years or so produced Radio Ethiopia,Easter and Wave which had some great songs such as Pissing In A River, Because The Night, and Frederick, but not reaching the heights of Horses. I saw Patti at the Reading Festival in 1979. I can't remember a lot about it though. Reading 79 was awful and I never went to that festival again. I seem to remember Patti talking too much in between the songs which made it quite a disjointed performance. A few weeks later Dave and I went grape-picking in France and arrived in the town of Orange to find that we had just missed Patti playing in the ruins of the Roman Amphitheatre there which was disappointing. Gradually Patti disappeared off my radar.I don't think she made another album for ten years.

In recent years though Patti has begun to reappear from her self imposed exile. Her book Just Kids has had lots of praise, and she has been honoured in France where they love her and now she has a brand new album 'Banga' which some critics have described as her best since Horses.  last week I learned that she was playing in Bath only 12 miles from here. I knew i had to go, so I phoned Fred because it was only right that Fred should go, for it was he who first introduced me to the Godmother Of Punk all those years ago. Then I found out much to my chagrin that the concert was a sell out. That only made me more determined to go and I scored two tickets on eBay.

The big day arrived.  I got to the station and found the train was running half an hour late. This really stressed me out. I finally got on the train,  Fred got on at Trowbridge and I started to relax. It was a beautiful summer evening as the little train chugged along the Avon valley to the beautiful city of Bath. The Forum doesn't look much from the outside, but it is an amazing building when you get inside. It was opened in 1934 by the Marquis Of Bath as one of the last great Art-Deco cinemas in Britain which has been lovingly restored to its former glory.

As we raced in, there was a huge cheer as Patti got on stage. We had made it with seconds to spare.The first song was Dancing Barefoot . You will have to excuse any mistakes because I have had a 30 year hiatus from Patti and  don't know all the song titles. The second song was Redondo Beach. Patti was in great voice and she looked great dressed in jeans and t shirt,jacket and a wooly hat which she threw away after a few songs. I think she is 66 now but her energy is incredible.Patti spits in the face of old age. She is one of the great movers in music and has the energy of a teenager.

She has a great 4 piece band with Lenny Kaye on guitar who was on the Horses album decades ago. The third song which is from Banga featured Tony Shanahan on keyboards. He has co-written a lot of her recent songs. After that Patti told a funny story about how they had been in the Lion & Lamb pub earlier and she had been given the wrong food. She had ordered steak and ale pie, but was given lasagne and she ate it. The waitress got really angry and Patti said,"But you gave it to me" and now she was worried that she had got the waitress in trouble. I know that pub, it is just down the road opposite the Oxfam bookshop. I think it is great when somebody like her who could eat in the finest restaurant in Bath chose to go in a pub like the Lion & Lamb. Patti also said that wandering around Bath she had met so many fans that tonight she felt that it wasn't so much a concert,more like hanging out with friends. She is a really nice person with a great wicked sense of humour.

The next song I recognised, it was Free Money from Horses, a great song. The next song is called Fuji San from Banga and is about the Japanese earthquake/tsunami. This was followed by her tribute to Ami Winehouse called This Is The Girl. It is really moving and I urge you to listen to it. Another great song followed which was Ghost Dance with its refrain 'We shall live again'. Then Patti said she had been watching 'Location,Location'.on the telly and the people wanted en-suite bedrooms."What do they call it en-suite ?,"said Patti,"Its a fucking toilet". Anyway,the next song was about her hero Arthur Rimbaud and how he had applied for a job building the Panama Canal. I think it is called Beneath The Southern Cross. Patti played guitar on this and it was magnificent. It ended with frenzied guitar and drumming which brought a standing ovation from large sections of the audience.

Then Lenny Kaye sang a song while Patti left the stage for 5 minutes. When she returned she had changed her t shirt.It was a really humid night. Then she sang a song called We Three which was about CBGB's club in New York and her friend Tom Verlaine of the band Television. I remember decades ago hearing Televisions Marquee Moon album round at Fred's flat. The next song was greeted with a huge cheer, it was her biggest hit Because The Night. Strangely though it was my least favourite song of the night. Maybe she has sung it too often and is a bit fed up with it. Pissing In A River followed and Lenny Kaye excelled himself on this one. All this talk about piss made me want to go to the toilet and I dashed down there. Even the toilets are nice in this venue with Art-Deco doors etc. I saw the bar was empty so I said to the girl,"A glass of white wine please",and downed it in one and dashed back to my seat. Patti was talking about the pub again and its name the Lion & Lamb and how the lion shall lie down with the lamb."But the lamb shall not get much sleep", I muttered to Fred. Her next song Peaceable Kingdom mentions lions and lambs. It was really good as was the next which is  People Have The Power.

Her greatest song Gloria followed and it was superb. Its a Van Morrison classic but I don't think I have seen Van ever perform it with this energy. Maybe in his early days. The crowd loved it at the end Patti said "That lasagne was awesome!" and left the stage to tumultuous applause. We knew it wasn't the end though and when Patti returned she announced that Italy had beaten Germany in the football. "It must be the lasagne",she said. For an encore she sang the title song Banga and there might have been a bit of Rock And Roll Nigger in there. Patti started making up lyrics off the top of her head and then she said,"I don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm so fucking happy". It was obvious she had enjoyed the concert as much as the audience. It was the end, and Patti departed after a brilliant concert of 105 minutes.Do you know the original cost of the tickets? £25.00. That's what I call value in these days of greed.

At the merchandise stall I bought a Patti t-shirt. On the front it said JESUS DIED FOR SOME BODY'S SINS,and on the back it says, BUT NOT MINE.I don't think I'll wear it around Westbury though. They just wouldn't get it. We had a pint in the pub opposite the railway station and had a chat. "Do you know where Banga comes from?", I asked Fred."No",he replied. "It comes from the book The Master And Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov, Banga is the name of Pontius Pilate's dog, have you not read that book?"."No", Fred replied. I haven't read it either but I will, so many books, so much music, so little time. Fred got off the train at Trowbridge,it had been great seeing him again..I finally got home at 11.40,tired but happy. Thank you very much Patti Smith for a wonderful inspiring evening.

Review: The Imagined Village At The Cheese & Grain In Frome May19th 2012

I was in the Portway Fish Bar in Westbury High Street one evening a few weeks ago and while I was waiting for my chips and curry sauce I read the adverts and posters on the wall and my eyes alighted on a flyer for a gig at the Cheese And Grain in Frome for The Imagined Village. What interested me was that Martin Carthy and his daughter Eliza were in the band. I had never seen Martin but  had admired his work for years. He is a legend. I have seen Eliza at Glastonbury and she is brilliant.
"Hmm", I thought to myself," That would be a good night out". My friends Smithy and Sash said that they fancied going so I bought 4 tickets and last night at 7.00 we met up in the Ludlow Arms, had a quick pint and got in a taxi for Frome. When we arrived I was most disappointed to find the doors weren't open yet and there was a long queue outside waiting to go in. This put me in a bad mood. Why do they have to be so strict about opening the doors?, what if it had been raining? .Finally at just after 8.00 someone opened the door and we shuffled in. I managed to grab a table at the back while Smithy went to the bar. It was a good job we had a table because the place filled up rapidly. I have seen quite a few bands at the Cheese & Grain such as Kate Rusby, Roy Harper, The Blockheads, Otway And Barrett,and Melanie Safka, but this was easily the biggest crowd I have seen. There were several hundred people there.

There was a short first set featuring the various members of the band. The opening song featured the cellist and upright bass player and reminded me slightly of the Fleet Foxes. Very atmospheric and even featured the sound of seagulls. Then Jackie Oates joined them. Like Eliza, Jackie is a virtuoso violin player and a great singer. Jackie sang Birthday which is a Sugercubes song originally sung by Bjork. It was great and then a song called Fire Escapes with her Violin and cello featuring heavily. Then Martin Carthy came on and sang a song called The Wife Of Usherwell. Martin was accompanied by Eliza and Sheema Mukherjee on sitar who was quite wonderful. This is ground-breaking music and folk music for the future bringing together all aspects of British society in the twenty-first century. I think Martin Carthy must be about 70 now and it is great that at his age he is trying to play music that is alive and relates to the modern age. Martin and Eliza closed the first half with Eliza playing some dazzling Quebec style fiddle music. Quite superb.
                                                                                                                                        

 We went outside for while Smithy guarded the table and we returned for the longer second set. The whole band were on stage now and I think there were ten or eleven of them. What an ensemble!. The first song was called New York Trader with Jackie on vocals as well as Eliza. The two of them work really well together. Martin introduced the next song which was called My Son John. This featured a huge Indian drum played by Johnny Kalsi and really reminded me of The Afro Celt Sound System whose first album I bought years ago and Simon Emmerson from that band is in The Imagined Village and I think the whole project was his brainchild so he deserves a lot of credit for that. Then there was a song  called Fisherman followed by The Sick Old Man. I had a walk up to the front during these songs and it was great to stand just a few feet away and admire the band in full flight. Eliza in particular really gets into it. Eliza and Jackie were superb in the Raggle Taggle Gypsies'O. Then a song called Nest (I think) penned by Jackie and Eliza and containing an extract from All The Pretty Little Horses. This band of multi-instrumentalists even featured a Theremin which I first heard on the Beach Boys Good Vibrations. Then it was Winter Singing followed by a song written by the bass player called The Governer. This was followed by a twelve minute composition by Sheema Mukherjee.Very complex in seven and a half time and it shows the genius of Martin Carthy to attempt to play Indian music on his acoustic guitar. The drumming again was incredible. Hard Times Of Old England followed and then Martin sang Cum On Feel The Noize (Not a spelling mistake) which is an old hit by Slade but I prefer Martins version. Eliza then said they were doing a medley of their hit Cold, Rainy Haily Night. Finally after one encore the band took a well deserved bow to rapturous applause from the audience.

One And Only. The Untold Story Of On The Road.

A friend Colleen who lives in San Diego recently sent me a book she had just finished reading called 'One And Only',The untold story of On The Road by Gerald Nicosia & Anne Marie Santos. That is because Colleen knows that I am a big fan of Jack Kerouac and The Beat Generation writers.
I once saw Gerald Nicosia at a Beat Conference in Plymouth in 1987 when he gave a talk about his book Memory Babe which at the time was the definitive biography of Jack Kerouac. Carolyn Cassady was at that conference as well. It was a great weekend. The book is the story of Lu Anne Henderson who was the first wife of Neal Cassady who was Dean Moriarty the hero of 'On The Road' one of the greatest American novels of the 20th century. In 'On The Road' Lu Anne is Marylou.
This book is based on interviews and recordings that Gerald Nicosia made with Lu Anne in the late 1970's. He transcripts the interviews exactly as Lu Anne spoke to him in an easy conversational way. One thing I don't like about the book is the anti-Carolyn Cassady tone of it. Carolyn was Neal's second wife. It is obvious that Lu Anne and Carolyn would be rivals because they were both married to Neal Cassady. I don't think Nicosia should have taken sides and put in his own two cents worth such as on page 21 when he says Carolyn could be a bit pompous and ponderous and didn't have the quick humour of Lu Anne. I met Carolyn briefly in 87 and found her most charming, friendly and not at all pompous or ponderous. She was also very beautiful as was Lu Anne (See Pictures)
Having said that, I  think this is a great book because it gives Lu Anne the important position in the Beat Generation that she deserves. As Nicosia points out, if Jack had never met Neal there would have not have been a Beat Generation. When they met they were very wary of each other, but Lu Anne was the catalyst that brought them together. Also, the Beats were basically a boys club of Jack, Neal, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and others. The women were reduced to 'minor characters' as one of Jack's girlfriends Joyce Johnson described them in her memoir. The women for the most part were left at home to look after the kids or earn some money. Lu Anne actually lived it, from the moment she first met Neal at the age of 15. She set off on the crazy car journeys across the great continent, through blizzards and stealing gas, and picking up hitchhikers to get a couple of dollars. Women in the 1940's and 50's didn't generally behave like that. Without realizing it she was an early feminist. The book also gives some insights into Jack and Neal who comes over as very selfish such as when he dumps Jack and Lu Anne on the sidewalk in San Francisco penniless and with no idea where to go. Jack comes over as a shy kind person but unable to cope with difficult situations. Jack and Lu Anne used to lie on the grass and look at the sky and describe what they could see in the clouds. One of the saddest parts of the book is when Lu Anne met Jack after On The Road was published and Jack said, "I can't see anything in the clouds any more". Neither Jack or Neal could handle fame. Jack wrote about twelve books in total obscurity and was happy, but when fame came it was like old papers blowing down Bleeker Street, and he began to drink heavily and it destroyed him. Gone in October 1969 at 47. It was the same for Neal who just became a performing Dean Moriaty the hero of On The Road. It must have been very upsetting for Lu Anne to see them both self destruct.

There is also a chapter of the memories of Al Hinkle who was best friends with Neal and Lu Anne which fills in details of Lu Anne's story after she gave the interviews to Nicosia. He was Big Ed Dunkel in On The Road. There is also a letter which Lu Anne wrote to Neal in 57. Finally there is a chapter called 'A Daughters Recollections' which is by Lu Anne's daughter Anne Marie Santos. One of the saddest things is that On The Road is finally being made into a film and Lu Anne died in 2010 and didn't live to see the film and how it portrays her position in the Beat Generation and hopefully gives her the credit she deserves. Anne Marie recounts meeting Kristen Stewart who portrays her mother in the film. Kristen listened to the tape of Lu Anne's interview with Gerald Nicosia which must have been very moving for her. I am really looking forward to seeing the film and thank you very much Colleen for sending me this excellent book which is a very important contribution to our understanding of a movement which brought about a very beneficial change to society.

Wavelength by Van Morrison.

In 1977 I went to visit my sister in Wiltshire on holiday. I hitched there and was dropped off on the town bridge in Bradford On Avon and looked at the river and walked along the canal tow path to Bath. I thought this is really nice, so I stayed and it seemed like a brand new day.

Wavelength will always have a special place for me in my collection of Van albums because it reminds me of the very first time I saw Van in concert in 1979. Although I had been a fan for six years I didn't get to see Van live until one fine spring afternoon my friend Fred and I got on his motorbike and set off for the Colston Hall in Bristol. We didn't have tickets but that didn't stop the likes of us. We were first in the queue waiting for the doors to open and passed the time chatting to a lad who had traveled all the way from Belfast. He had been a fan since Van's early days playing in the Maritime Hotel. As soon as the doors opened we made a bee-line for the box office and managed to get seats with restricted view at the right side of the circle, right above the stage but we wouldn't be able to see the keyboard player Pete Bardens. The support act was called Earl Okin. Then it was time for Van.

From our vantage point we could see Van in the wings waiting to come on. He looked really nervous which was quite surprising considering that he had already been a performer for over 15 years. The tour was called the Taking It Further tour from a line in Checkin' It Out, a song on his new album.

After the indifferent reception that A Period Of Transition received from fans and critics, Van was astute enough to realise he had to come up with a more popular album next time out and he delivered just that with Wavelength which was his most commercial album in years. The opening song Kingdom Hall is very upbeat. Van's mother Violet was a Jehovah's Witness for a while and that is where this song came from. With all the sectarian divide in Belfast between Catholics and Protestants the Morrison's were Jehovah's Witnesses. Trust Van to be different.

Checkin' It Out is brilliant. I like the words, There are guides and spirits on the way who will befriend us'. Natalia is one of the more lightweight songs on the album in my opinion with the guitar and female backing singers playing quite a part.  Venice USA  follows and is not a favourite of mine either.

The next song Lifetimes more than makes up for it. I used to read a lot of books by Hermann Hesse and the lyrics really remind me of his novel Siddartha with suggestions of reincarnation, boatmen, and sitting in silence and listen to the river. This song is a precursor to the spiritual quest that Van was to carry through the 1980's. The title track Wavelength follows and it is excellent. Pete Bardens synthesizer is used to good effect here and I love the hand claps. The song is a celebration of young Van's love affair with the radio when all the magical sounds floated through the ether to his room in Hyndford Street. He even mentions his lover in the grass, which recalls Brown Eyed Girl..

Santa Fe is a co-written song with Jackie De Shannon and is more than a song to sing and merges into Beautiful Obsession which suggests meditation and contemplation. Themes that Van would develop later when such tracks as When Heart Is Open  became less like songs and more like meditations.

Hungry For Your Love is a more carnal affair with such lyrics as I love you in buckskin, let the cowboy ride.  Take It Where You Find It  brings the album to a close on a high note.

I can't remember a lot about which songs he sang that night in Bristol. I know he sang Wavelength and Natalia. Another friend who was there tells me he did Moondance, Tupelo Honey and Cyprus Avenue. I definitely remember Gloria and Brown Eyed Girl. I also recall Katie Kissoon singing a great version of Crazy Love while Van took a break. Band members I can remember besides Katie were Toni Marcus, violin, Pete Bardens Keyboards , Bobby Tench guitar. I can't remember who else played. I bought my first Van T Shirt that night. It was to be three long years before myself and Van were to cross paths again.

Little did I realise at the time, but the following album Into The Music would be one of the best of his career..